KARACHI: Pakistani fiction writer, teacher and critic Dr Asif Farrukhi passed away on Monday at the age of 60.

Farrukhi was born in 1959. He was the son of distinguished Urdu scholar, poet, researcher and writer Dr Aslam Farrukhi.

Farrukhi has published six collections of short stories and two collections of literary criticisms. He also edited and published a literary miscellany in Urdu called "Duniyazad".

From 1985 to 1993 he worked on the faculty of the Aga Khan University under the supervision of the public health pioneer Prof. John H. Bryant.

In 2010, he collaborated with Oxford University Press, and the British Council to found the Karachi Literature Festival, and he is one of the founders of it.

From 1994 to 2014, Farrukhi was associated with UNICEF, Karachi, as the Health and Nutrition programme Officer.

In 2014 he joined Habib University, where he is Associate Professor and Director of the Arzu Center for Regional Languages & Humanities.

In 2016 he became Interim Dean & Associate Professor School of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences at Habib University.

In 1995 he received the Prime Minister's award for literature. In 2005 he was awarded the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz.